Chapter 1

At the wedding ceremony, the officiant invited the groom to share a few words.

No one expected him to slap himself across the face in front of everyone.

"This slap," he declared, his voice cutting through the stunned silence, "is for my heartlessness. Three years ago, I listened to my parents and stayed home—and lost the one I truly loved."

I glanced at my parents, whose faces had tightened with barely suppressed anger. I gave a small shake of my head, willing them to hold back.

Then he slapped himself again.

"This second slap is for my cruelty. I destroyed a life that never had the chance to be born."

My entire body went rigid. Leo Lancaster and I had been together for three years. We had never had a child.

"And this third slap," he said, his voice dropping low, "is for my failure as a son."

He looked at me. Then at his own parents.

"Mom. Dad. Elara—I'm sorry. The wedding will have to wait. Today, I have to go to the airport. I'm picking up Vivienne."

That day, I became the laughingstock of every elite family in Harbor City.

The next morning, I held a press conference and announced two things:

First: I was putting my marriage up for auction. Highest bidder takes all.

Second: I was launching a full-scale hostile takeover of Lancaster Group—and I would not stop until it was bankrupt.

……

The moment the announcement ended, the room erupted.

Cameras and microphones surged toward me from every direction.

"Ms. Hilton," a reporter called out, "yesterday Mr. Lancaster said the wedding was merely postponed. Now you're auctioning off your own marriage and openly targeting Lancaster Group. Are you declaring war on him?"

"Ms. Hilton, rumor has it Mr. Lancaster pursued you for three full years, and you took three years to say yes. Can you really let go so easily?"

I tightened my grip on the microphone. After a pause, I drew a slow breath and answered, "Leo Lancaster and I are enemies now. There is nothing left between us."

I glanced down at my phone. An unknown number had sent me a video.

In it, Leo's hands were removing the last piece of clothing from Vivienne Pierce's body.

On Leo's wrist gleamed a Vacheron Constantin watch—the limited edition I had given him for his birthday.

I raised my head. A cold smile curled at the corner of my mouth. I turned the phone screen toward the press.

"You've all worked hard today. Allow me to offer you a gift."

Leo's affair video was captured by dozens of media outlets simultaneously.

Three hours later, it detonated across Harbor City.

【Lancaster Scandal: Groom Abandons New Wife to Meet Mistress — Explicit Video Leaked】

【Unbelievable: Leo Lancaster Ditches Billionaire Wife, Checks Into Hotel with Lover — Full Footage Exposed】

I was peeling fruit and scrolling through the headlines when Leo arrived at my door—with Vivienne in tow.

He swept everything off the table with one furious arm. Then his hand closed around my throat, squeezing hard, demanding I apologize to Vivienne.

"Elara Hilton," he snarled, "I delayed the wedding by a few days. That's it. And you leaked that video of me and Vivienne—do you have any idea what that's doing to her? She just graduated. She can't handle this kind of harassment."

I forced a slow breath past his grip. "You abandoned me at the altar in front of everyone," I said. "Did you stop to wonder how I would handle that?"

His fingers tightened. My face flooded with heat.

"You," he said, his voice dropping to something venomous, "are nothing but Shen's dirty little secret. An illegitimate child. What do you have to lose?"

My heart plummeted like a stone.

When we first got together, he had said: Your background may be complicated, but I'll have all of Lancaster Group stand behind you. I'll make you the most powerful name in Harbor City.

And now he was using the thing I feared most to twist the knife.

So be it. If that's how it is—then prepare yourself, Leo. The illegitimate child you looked down on is about to make you pay.

Before the darkness closed in, I clenched the fruit knife in my hand and drove it into Vivienne Pierce's right palm.

"Leo Lancaster," I said through gritted teeth, "I am not your seasoning. I was never something you could pick up and put down."

"Leo—blood!" Vivienne screamed, lunging forward.

"You—you hurt her, you psycho!"

I grabbed Vivienne's wrist, held the blade up to her face, and met her eyes.

"Before you come at me, make sure you know what you're walking into."

Crack. A blow landed hard across my cheek. It burned like fire.

"Vivienne is everything to me," Leo said, his voice shaking with rage. "Touch me all you want—but if you ever lay a hand on her again, I will destroy your entire family."

I stood very still.

The composure I had held together since yesterday fractured—slowly, like a web of hairline cracks splitting apart all at once.

Once, when I was a child—locked outside in the rain by my stepmother and older brother—it was Leo who had held me and said those same words.

Elara Hilton is the person I treasure most. Anyone who hurts her again will watch Lancaster Group vanish from this city.

How laughable.

I picked up my phone and called my assistant.

"Put out a statement," I said, my voice perfectly calm, my expression carved from iron. "Whoever has the means to bankrupt Lancaster Group—I will marry them."